Whole Foods roasts its own coffee at the stores. Not every type is roasted every day. I've been told by the roastmaster at one WF store that there's an advantage to buying coffee that's roasted two or three days earlier but that sounds like baloney to me. Would be curious if anybody knows of a good reason not to roast daily (sorry about hijacking the thread).

I've been going there since the early 70s. They used to have an SUV sized roaster in the next room and it was maddening (the smell), but the actual roasting is done in a warehouse now. You could ask them when they roast whatever variety you like. I've always gravitated back to the HCB Special Blend.

Spec's has a roaster on display at their big store downtown, as I recall, but I haven't been impressed with the freshness of what I've bought there. Those big plastic dispenser bins of beans are just a marketing gimmick I think, it can't be good for the beans to be exposed to light and air like that. I've never tried the WF or CM coffees.

Oh yes, if freshness is a big thing, buy a grinder, adequate ones about $20 at Bed Bath and Beyond, and buy the beans and grind your own as you need it. You'll get much better flavor that way. Ground coffee really loses flavor rapidly.

Thanks y'all... will try whole foods. Haven't been to HCB in about a decade, somehow I got the impression they did mostly flavored coffee. Will try them again. I finally broke the polycarbonate french press I bought the last time I was there so I'm due back. By the way, the campfire french press was an awesome thing, since chowspouse has broken 2 bodum beakers in the last month.

Have 2 grinders -- one is quarantined for spices only and the other, a larger-than-blender sized thing, spews grounds all over the kitchen. I just don't have it in me to grind every am anymore. Got used to buying beans on roasting day in Chapel Hill, a place called 3 Cups, worth checking out their website if interested in coffee.

I see that I misinterpreted your first post as being a request from someone new to fresh roasted coffee. You've got me intrigued and I did some more looking around. I had heard about this one a year or so ago and bookmarked it -- it's in La Porte, but you might want to check it out:

I was trying to think of this one before but couldn't remember it and assumed it had gone away: http://www.javacoffee.com/ Some friends of mine used to swear by this one but it was a less convenient to me that HCB and I only went a couple of times.

Of course there's the big boy on the block, supposedly supplies coffee to lots of upscale Houston restos; I've tried their beans (available at some Kroger Signature stores) and wasn't too impressed. http://www.duncancoffee.com/

I know what you mean about getting tired of the daily grind. I'm currently working on a bag of Mello Joy from Lafayette, which claims to be the original Cajun coffee - bought it a long time ago when passing thru and was out of beans and decided to use it up.

Please get back to us on what you find. I think I'll look into one of these others this time around.

Oh yes, the Mitaluna mentioned in the link above used to be available in a coffee shop in the Randall's center at Westheimer & Shepherd and some of their coffees (ground only, I think) are available at Spec's. The Katz coffee co. website mentioned in the link above is not up and running.

Nine months later...My favorite so far is Cuvee Coffee http://www.cuveecoffee.com/but I can't justify fedexing myself a pound of coffee from Spring. One of the restaurants around here orders from them, and the owner said I could pick up my order at her store if I liked but I haven't gotten around to arranging it.

Central Market gets there Lola Savannah on Tuesday after having been roasted on Monday, so I've been doing that lately because its convenient and I found those coffees to be tasty.

House of Coffee Beans told me that they roast every variety every day. I've tried most of their mild single-origin coffees, but they were, well, very mild. I may start going again soon to try others.

I just stumbled on an interesting tidbit about roasted coffee, reading an article about the White Linen Night in the Heights. There is a coffee place in my neighborhood that supplies to restaurants and the public. I haven't tried it, but I'm not a coffee drinker. They serve it at Waldo's House in the Heights and here is a link (to the coffee not Waldo's):

Not true! You can also go straight to the roaster and purchase on the spot. They will do custom blends for you as well if you order that ahead of time. As neverfull mentioned.. Catalina coffee also sells their custom blend from Katz. Katz is the best freshly roasted coffee I have found in the area.

Over the last few years, several people in the food & beverage industry have mentioned it to me. I have never taken the time to find out if they have a storefront open to the public. They are downtown at 1701 Commerce St Ste 1A, Houston, TX 77002.

I also prefer to buy coffee beans from The House of Coffee Beans (already mentioned by a fellow chowhound) and Central Market. I have occasionally purchased coffee beans from Spec’s simply because it is so close to me. I usually get their “coffee of the month” special because it’s always $5.99 a pound. So far, have never had a problem doing that. But then again at that price, I am not expecting the best coffee of my life.

I had never heard of Lola but apparently they've been around for years and the website says they roast every day. I'm going to check it out.

I tried some of the Katz but all I could find were dark roast and I prefer a medium roast. I've been using the Honduran coffee San Marcos Supremo from Copan Trade which I had read is imported and roasted up in Tomball but from the website maybe it's just imported by this company in Tomball?